Adhesive based reconfigurable electronic circuit building system

Abstract

A system for assembling electronic circuits on an electrically non-conductive surface or substrate. The system incorporates electronic components integrated into electronic component modules. The electronic component modules include identification markings on the top surfaces and electronic contact pads on the bottom surfaces. Electrical interconnects between discrete electronic component modules is achieved through the use of electrically conductive traces placed on the substrate surface. The bottom surfaces of the electronic component modules are coated with an adhesive so the electronic component modules can be mounted onto the substrate. The electronic component modules are affixed to the substrate such that the electronic component modules contact pads make electrical contact with the appropriate electrically conductive traces.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application Ser. No. 61 / 978,109, filed 2014 Apr. 10 by the present inventor.BACKGROUNDPrior Art[0002]The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:[0003]U.S. PatentsPat. No.Kind CodeIssue DatePatentee5,742,4861998 Apr. 21Yangkuai4,110,9171978 Sep. 5Le Grelle4,010,5551977 Mar. 8PaulssonDes. 235,5541975 Jun. 24Portugal3,694,9311972 Oct. 3Bialek3,633,0741972 Jan. 4Nojiri3,548,2611970 Dec. 15ChambersNonpatent Literature Documents[0004]Buechley, L., Hendrix, S., and Eisenberg, M., “Paints, paper, and programs: first steps toward the computational sketchbook”, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI '09) ACM, New York, N.Y. (2009) pgs. 9-12.[0005]Freed, N., Qi, J., Setapen, A., Breazeal, C., Buechley, L. and Raffle, H., “Sticking together: handcrafting personalized communication interfaces”, Proceedings o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The current invention is a system for creating and testing electronic circuits using repositionable components on a non-conductive surface. This system includes a substrate, conductive traces, and electronic component modules. The substrate provides a surface for attaching components, while the conductive traces offer interconnections between them. This allows for easy assembly of various electronic components to form complex circuits. Overall, the current invention simplifies the process of creating and testing electronic circuits.

Problems solved by technology

While electrical circuits can be assembled using such a breadboard it can be difficult to trace individual elements of the circuit because of the inherent three dimensional nature of the components with their leads bent over to be inserted into the compartments of the breadboard.

A disadvantage of this technique is that the user must wait for the conductive glue to dry to both secure the component to the circuit and for the glue itself to become conductive.

The disadvantages of these techniques include that soldering components on paper is inconvenient and a fire hazard, mechanical means to hold the components in place such as paperclips and ordinary tape are insecure and with movement and vibration subject to physical separation and loss of electrical contact.

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